01-07-2012 NEW Driftwood 'DREWnet' Cluster v6 GOP 12/15 Released - With adapted Sedna and Orion matrix on different rec modes with superior reliability on 24p, HBR, 1080i and 720p modes over most other settings - A truly exceptional setting!

Two packs, one at Quantisation 20 (default), the other AQ1 (pushed the Quantisation and bitrate further still). Note: AQ2 to 4 is unnecessary. Q20 is REALLY pushing the Quantisation to best levels without having to use AQ. Q20 Bitrate is measured to detail and will achieve in places AQ3 or AQ4 size bitrates without distorting Q so much as before.

The two settings (DREWnet info below this one) share striking similarities in the matrix and the only real difference is the GOP, the 'GOP Related' weighting of bitrate to i, p and b frames, and bitrate to produce a rate control that increases overall bitrate by around 25%. HBR/1080i certainly looks even better. But let YOU be the judge.

Avg 30M on highest detail for HBR/1080i with reliability on all modes inc. iDynamic, iA, Etc...

Avg 40M+ on highest detail for 720p resolving great looking IQ and motion. Again tested on iA and iDynamic High settings.

Hi quality MJPEG 2k

Superior audio from thepalalias at 'pasadenapulse.net'.

CLUSTER v5.1 'Globular' - Sedna Optimised classic GOP 12/15 PAL/NTSC As below with improvements and Sedna Matrix on the I frames of each REC Mode.

CLUSTER v5 'Globular' - Top notch classic GOP 12/15 PAL/NTSC - Wonderful quality at an affordable bitrate! This is THEE BEST setting out there at the moment apart from GOP1. Don't doubt it.

Achieves 90+ M bitrate at 24p on the highest of detail or running water...!

Needs only near 40M on highest detail for HBR/1080i.

Requires only near 60M on highest detail for 720p.

MJPEG 2k

Its just....nice! Great for documentary and event filming. Very good on running water and trees!

Q16

Great smooth matrix.

No shitslides on the buffers.

Bollox to putting up charts and videos - just see for yourself. Trust me.

You may wonder why Ive set bitrate upto 30% higher? If death charts come in at late 90Ms then I want to be sure this is not going to collapse if it goes slightly over that - highly detailed stress pictures like running water over submerged detail.

CLUSTER v4 PACK! - Well here is the cluster of GOPS you can now pick and choose between:-

Cluster v4 (The ALL 6 GOP setting)- Released 8th June 2012V4 now Cluster Matrix
V High i frames on 24p (you cant get any higher on death charts) 116mbps avg,
80% mode works,
Great HBR &
Best quality 720p60/50, Good buffers.
2K HD resolution 2048 x 1152 pixels - Highest quality MJPEG,
Highest qual mjpeg SD.
Great Audio from Per Lichtmann once again.
Don't expect In-camera playback - you'll get a few seconds at most to checkback but rest assured the files come across fine on the computer and play/NLE import fine too. These are highest quality/ highest bitrate for a long GOP especially in 24p. Trust me, the recordings are fine. However, here's the REAL deal. FCPX and Clipwrap WILL NOT correctly bring in over 1 hours of footage of 24p Cluster. The only one so far I have tested which correctly transcodes an 1 hour 10 minute 24p of continuous filming on a 64Gig card is Premiere Pro in AVCHD sequence setting. This proggie will correctly transcode to any format WITHOUT errors (though it could take upto a few hours) over any other. Though I havent been able to test Sony Vegas and anything else. This is the bane of Long GOPs.

Cluster v3 (The ALL 6 GOP setting)- Released 5th June 2012V3 now using my Sedna adapted matrices (slightly changed here and there).
V High i frames on 24p (you cant get any higher on death charts) 120+mbps,
80% mode works,
V High HBR (800+ on death charts),
v High quality 720p,
2K HD resolution 2048 x 1152 pixels - Highest quality MJPEG,
Highest qual mjpeg SD.
Great Audio from Per Lichtmann once again.
NOW with in camera playback

Cluster v2a (12 GOP, 3 GOP & 6 GOP)- Released 31 May 2012

FOR LONG RECORDINGS. VBR Long GOP (12 GOP) edition of Driftwood matrix driving 24pH with deblocking and high i frames (1,180,000 sized i frames in 80% mode).
HBR/1080i Modes pushing 24p modes.
720p (GOP6) Working and spanning.
mjpeg mode- simply the best around.
Inc. Per Lichtmann's (thepalalias) top quality all singing-all dancing and quite brilliant 'Pasadena Pulse' audio settings.

Quantum 9b settings

The original plain old Quantum v9b with AQ4 and AQ3! Ah, memories!!!

An updated version of Driftwood Quantum 9b (the old fav) for ptools v3.65d is added. The updated setting includes a Sedna adapted matrix and a few changes to the GOP Related structure but no big changes.

Orion Settings

Details: Featuring the new 'Dark Matter' matrix set (three version variations) based on current Orion Matrix with hi/lo freq adjustments. Plus 720p on 9/6 GOP. AQ is NOT required. This is a constant Q (Q8) CBR setting which performs measurably better than with AQ4 on. All other settings as before.
INFO: Orion 4d with Dark Matter matrix pack.
Three adjusted matrices to try out, all scaled from perceived HVS Great Quality (v1) to middle of these (v2) and perceived HVS Highest quality (v3). HVS = Human Visual System. This is sharper than the Orion matrix of yore which is still great but many of you wanted to pull out a few extra stops. Let's see if this helps YOU.
Only other changes from Orion 4b are GOP Releated, 720p is 9/6 for NTSC/PAL.

Download the Quantum patches (white looking documents found at the bottom of the above sections) and unzip them to a 'Quantum' named folder.

NOW run ptools, then load the firmware v1.11 (GH2__V11.bin for GH2 users or GF2__V11.bin for GF2 users) when it asks, now you'll see Quantum settings highlighted in Green (hover mouse over B and G buttons) click on either, whichever you wanna try.

One youve selected your fav' Quantum setting then click on SAVE FIRMWARE button and save the patched firmware to your sdcard naming it higher than the original GH2__V11.bin (GF2__V11.bin for GF2) firmware (makes sense yeah!) for example 'GH2__V12.bin' (GF2__V12.bin for GF2) when asked.

Load the new firmware from the sdcard to your camera by inserting sdcard, switch on camera, press the green-marked triangular ► 'Play' button once, Answer yes, to update your firmware. Note: Make sure youve got a fully charged battery before doing this update.

Done! Film away! *Please note you WILL NOT see any cosmetic changes in the menu system of the camera - but rest assured, the Quantum settings are all loaded & working hidden, under the bonnet of the camera ;-)

HOW TO PUT IT BACK TO STOCK SETTINGS AGAIN? You can always go back to stock settings by simply UNCHECKING all the boxes in ptools (or by clicking any unused red button, A to J) and saving the edited firmware back to your sdcard and reupdating. oR, RENAMING the original firmware from GH2__V11.bin to GH2__V12.bin and flashing it to your camera. Easy.

Cluster V2e looks great. With some more testing I could see this quickly becoming my new go-to setting for 30p, for subtle slow motion effects. Looks especially great down-rez'd from 2K to 1080p. I think it'll cut nicely with Sedna, as well. Thanks @Driftwood, you've done it again!

So what exactly happens when you shoot in HBR with CM Day/night/soft or Sedna...is the hack still applied or is it just shooting stock? I didn't quite understand "testing against HBR" in previous comment.

Also is the hack still applied in variable movie mode (80% or others)? Or is the hack only working in 24p cinema?

@driftwood: Regarding your statement "if you want the best, stick to GOP 1 on 24p": Is there any GOP1 setting that will not abort recordings or crash the camera while still delivering quality better than the best current GOP3 settings?

I wonder because the only thing I do is documentary stuff, and unlike at a feature film set, I cannot ask the "actors" to do a re-take when something goes wrong. Also, when shooting underwater, unpowering the camera is simply not possible.

Therefore, a GOP1 setting would be useful for me only if it was known not to abort or even crash.

Maybe that is a beginner´s question, but can GOPs be allocated to bitrate settings?
Let´s say, 24H is Intra, whereas 24L switches to longer GOPs?
But I guess the GH2 will not allow this. Made a short test beween Canis Night an Clusterv2a.
With cluster, I see some mosquito-like noise (hope mosquito-like is correct, looks a bit like haloing or ghosting) on the edges of highly detailed opjects. But very, very subtle

I took Cluster 2Va to the water today. I also switched to a 32 gig 45mb card (I'm not buying anymore 95mb'ers).
Nearly everything was in 720-60 and it did fine....until I got to the killer. Wake crashing on rocks. In 720 it locked up tight giving a card speed error and requiring me to pull the battery. After a couple of times doing that, I switched to 24P and no other errors.

In last nights test, I got a lot more noise than I expected so tonight I'm taking the same lens to the same place I tested flow motion v2.1, and see how it stacks up.

Thanks @peternap Try and test v2e too. Version 3 is in progress to try and balance the memory which gets allocated to P/B frames - which incidentally I have found the more you power them, the more the i frames drop... balancing the available memory gets everymore tricky... :-)